


future witness

by neprueus



Series: another light [1]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: (of Chasing Clouds), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternative Character Interpretation, Gen, The Ancients - Freeform, also jayfeather/jay’s wing is here, canon complaint, he’s Not enjoying himself, in which dove’s wing has dreams of dovewing’s powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 05:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14181573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neprueus/pseuds/neprueus
Summary: “No no,” Dove’s Wing insisted. “All sounds have echoes. And in my dream, if I strained my ears just so, I could hear any echo. Even all the way across the lake.”





	future witness

**Author's Note:**

> while posting the draft before publishing ao3 decided I should have SIX COPIES (!!) so if there are six of the same fic posted im sorry ill take them down when it’s not 1am

The first time Chasing Clouds dragged Dove’s Wing away from camp to show her the tunnels, she cried that, “Aren’t these tunnels supposed to be flooded, at least a little? I thought they were flooded.” 

“You have bees in your brain,” Chasing Clouds responded. “The tunnels have never flooded.” 

“How do you know that?” Dove’s Wing pressed, leaning forwards in Chasing Cloud’s face, completely unaware she was even doing it. “I saw it happen.” 

“When?” Chasing Clouds meowed skeptically. 

“In my dream,” Dove’s Wing meowed, bouncing a little on her toes. “Everything was so clear, it had to have happened! Jay’s Wing almost drowned! And then Fallen Leaves saved him.”

Dove’s Wing didn’t have Chasing Clouds’ attention until she said ‘Fallen Leaves’. 

“How do you know who he was?” Chasing Clouds meowed, brow furrowing. 

“My dream, remember? He said his name was Fallen Leaves in it.”

“Fallen Leaves… died in these tunnels trying to escape them before both you and Jay’s Wing were born.”

“He did?” Dove’s Wing meowed, mistified.

Chasing Clouds sucked in a breath, pulled his gaze from Dove’s Wing’s sincere expression to the tunnels. “What else happened in your dream?” He pressed. 

“I could hear any sound I wanted to, if I chose.” 

“Mouse-dung,” He said flatly.

“No no,” Dove’s Wing insisted. “All sounds have echoes. And in my dream, if I strained my ears just so, I could hear any echo. Even all the way across the lake.”

Chasing Clouds scraped his teeth across his bottom lip, hummed a disbelieving note. “And I’m assuming you’re going to tell me next that light traveled into your eyes, and you could see when anything happened,” 

“Yes! Exactly! How did you know?”

He scoffed. “Honestly. Your brain has been scrambled as much as Jay’s Wing’s.” But he wasn’t going to admit he wasn’t at least a little intrigued. 

“Jay’s Wing was in the tunnels yesterday,” Dove’s Wing countered with a serious face, coming off much cuter than intended. “I bet he’s on my side.”

“Jay’s Wing is a sharpclaw now,” Chasing Clouds meowed, taping Dove’s Wing’s nose with the tip of his tail. 

“But!-“ Dove’s Wing started. 

Chasing Clouds cut her off. “And you are a softpaw. He has no time for his little sister’s nonsense and stories.”

Exasperated, Dove’s Wing groaned, turned around and threw her head up towards the sky dramatically. Chasing Clouds covered her eyes with the tip of his tail. “Don’t stare at the sun unless you want to go blind,” he meowed. 

“Speaking of which. Can we go back to camp now? I’m melting,” Dove’s Wing complained, tail still over her eyes. She was right, Chasing Clouds was beginning to sweat out of his own skin. 

“We can cool off in the lake, and then we can continue looking around the moor.” Chasing Clouds watched, pleased, as Dove’s Wing’s face contorted in reaction to having to walk around more.

“Ugh. The lake is so far,” Dove’s Wing grumbled, shrugging his tail off and walking in the direction of the lake anyway. 

 

Chasing Clouds was willing to admit that Jay’s Wing has been acting fairly out of character since he emerged from the tunnels the previous morning. Snappy and easily irritable, and unable to answer the simplest questions about his new position as a sharpclaw or his family. Furthermore, he was only able to recognize Dove’s Wing, but not get her name right. 

The coincidences began to add up. Becoming deeply suspicious of Dove’s Wing’s dream, Chasing Clouds questioned her, but she claimed ignorance save for the fact that in her dream Jay’s Wing was acting similarly to now. There was no reason to doubt her, but he had no reason to believe her either. She was just a silly softpaw, scarcely ten moons old. Dove’s Wing could be withholding information from him, to call dreams fact would be a massive stretch if anything. 

The entire situation was very intriguing, to say the least. 

Which only surprised Chasing Clouds when one day Dove’s Wing wondered aloud, half to herself, “Do you think Jay’s Wing… isn’t Jay’s Wing?”

Chasing Clouds stared at the softpaw, carefully guarding his expression. Dove’s Wing went on with her searching of the fresh-kill pile, seemingly oblivious to even having spoken at all.

“What do you mean?” He asked. 

“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean’? You know what I mean,” Dove’s Wing said, pointing at him with her tail. 

“What makes you think so?” Chasing Clouds said after taking a moment to decipher what she said. Playing along might provide something, he decided. 

Dove’s Wing rolled her eyes, not unlike this new Jay’s Wing. “He can’t answer basic questions about our lives and doesn’t remember anyone, even our own mother,” Dove’s Wing meowed, focusing her gaze upwards as though everything she was saying was written in the sky. “He insists of going to that hollow deep in the woods for no reason at all. He’s never shown any interest in it. Plus,” Dove’s Wing lashed her tail once to empathize the plus, “He can’t remember our own mother.”

“You already said that,” Chasing Clouds meowed, just to respond. He had nothing of addition to say, everything he had suspicions about had just been confirmed. 

He wasn’t going to claim that Dream Jay’s Wing and Real Jay’s Wing switched places, but he was going to ask Dove’s Wing to try as hard as she can to dream tonight. 

 

It wasn’t long until Chasing Clouds found time alone with Jay’s Wing, walking in on him while he was sitting in his nest.

He approached his nest cautiously. Jay’s Wing glanced upwards, icy blue eyes meeting his gaze. 

Chasing Clouds decided to break the silence first. “Just out of curiosity, why did you call Dove’s Wing ‘Dovewing’?” He asked.

Jay’s Wing looked him in the eye, likely calculating what he should say. After a long moment, he spoke, “What difference does it make?”

Chasing Clouds set his jaw and stared deeply into Jay’s Wing’s expression, watching his pupils narrow into tiny slits. “You’ve never gotten her name wrong before,” He meowed.

“No,” Jay’s Wing meowed, shaking his head to empathize. “I didn’t get her name wrong.” 

Chasing Clouds huffed loudly, tail tip twitching involuntarily. “Fine. Did your sister tell you who Fallen Leaves is?”

“No.” 

“You don’t know who he is.”

“No.”

“So you told her.” Chasing Clouds’ voice ticked upwards in volume.

“No.”

“You both knew of him separately?”

“Yes.”

“Did your father tell you who he was?”

“No.”

“Answer me with more than one word!” Chasing Clouds cried, lashing his tail violently. 

“Fine!” Jay’s Wing yelled back, matching his volume. “I met him in the tunnels!”

“He’s alive?” Chasing Clouds asked, voice returning to normal, if not a touch louder than his regular tone. 

“No,” Jay’s Wing spat. “He’s dead.” 

“Did... he die while you were down there?”

“He’s been gone for a long time. Obviously. Did you seriously think he clung to life for so long?”

“Oh,” Chasing Clouds replied flatly.

Jay’s Wing broke eye contact, instead focusing on a small stone on the floor. A few beats of silence passed, Chasing Clouds still standing over the smaller framed cat. Jay’s Wing’s gaze drifted to Chasing Cloud’s face for a second, then snapped back to the pebble. He was waiting for him to leave.

He wasn’t going to pry any more answers out of Dove’s Wing and Jay’s Wing at this rate, if this was all they were going to give him. As much as he fought believing it, their stories seemed to loosely line up, and he was willing to comply as long as this wasn’t some sick prank.

It was as good of a explanation for this behavior as he was going to get. 

Still, ghosts don’t exist. 

“Sorry.” Jay’s Wing meowed begrudgingly, startling Chasing Clouds out of his thoughts. He hasn’t realized he’d been staring and Jay’s Wing for so long. “I should have cooperated with you.” The words came out mechanical and forced. Jay’s Wing probably rehearsed the line in his head before he spoke it, more parts escape attempt than sincere.

“No. I don’t understand what you’ve seen. I won’t pretend to,” Chasing Clouds began carefully. Jay’s Wing looked up at this, an almost curious expression on his face. “I still don’t believe any of this. But I won’t ask any more questions for now,” He amended. 

Jay’s Wing was silent, flicking his tail as he mulled over Chasing Clouds’ words. Finally, he nodded. “You won’t understand. But okay.” Chasing Clouds gave a reserved nod as well and left. 

As he padded out of the den, he felt Dove’s Wing’s eyes on him. He watched her eyes tick around the camp, realizing she’d been spotted. 

Upon deeper inspection, Chasing Clouds notes that her eyes were a peculiar color, not quite yellow, not quite green, nor blue. Not simple or wholly one color, just like this situation. 

He groaned. Now was not the time to overanalyze.


End file.
